Siecienski said the city tried to sell the truck through local, statewide and national advertising, including both newspaper and magazine advertising. It was advertised on the Internet. The only offer was $3,103.

"There is a glut of ladders on the market," Siecienski said.

Danbury anticipates hiring seven new firefighters between now and March. The city's need is for training, which costs roughly $3,300 per person.

What it doesn't need is the old aerial platform truck.

"There were benefits for each party," said
Adam Piskura
, director of training at the state Fire Academy.

Piskura said the academy has a 100-foot ladder truck, but the ladder is just a stick. It doesn't have a platform on the top. Piskura said his job is to train firefighters to use both pieces of equipment.

"We could use a platform for training," Piskura said. "I'm pretty confident the
Connecticut Bonding Commission
isn't about to authorize a $1 million ladder truck for us any day soon."

Piskura said the truck was appraised for roughly $21,000, and what the academy did was barter a deal without having cash exchange hands.

"The truck passed its fundamental structural test, and we will continue to test it every two years," Piskura said.

"We'll use it and not declare it surplus until the costs of maintaining it exceed the benefits."

Andy Morits
, the apparatus superintendent with the
Danbury Fire Department
, said the old ladder truck was state of the art when the city bought it, and the city replaced it in 2005 with a better, $900,000 aerial ladder.

The new truck can fit under the railroad overpass on West Street, which the old ladder couldn't do.